US Treasury imposes strict sanctions on Mahan Air

The US has imposed strict sanctions on one of Iran’s main airlines that it says flew members belonging to an elite force linked to alleged plots to kill a Saudi envoy to America.

The US Treasury said that Mahan Air ferried operatives of Iran’s Quds Force, and also Hezbollah, around the Middle East. As part of the sanctions, the airline’s American assets will be frozen with US firms completely barred from being able to do any business with it.

The US Secretary of State, Ms Hillary Clinton, has meanwhile said that the alleged plot is a dangerous escalation from Iran. America’s sanctions were unveiled just a day after the authorities made an announcement on having foiled a conspiracy to kill the Saudi ambassador to the States, Adel Al-Jubeir, on American soil using explosives. The US government has pointed the finger at members of Iran’s government – as well as the Quds Force, one of the elite units of the Revolutionary Guard Corps – for having an involvement.

The US’ sanctions on Mahan Air represent the most noticeable step that the country has taken following the announcement it made of an Iranian plot to bomb Washington DC. In response, Iran is insistent that the charges are a mere part of a propaganda campaign being run by the Americans in order to justify future attacks on Tehran.

According to Zero Hedge, countries outside of the U.S. dumped 74 billion dollars in U.S. Treasuries, most of it over the weekend:

“Over the weekend, we observed the perplexing sell off of $56 billion in US Treasurys courtesy of weekly disclosure in the Fed’s custodial account (source: H.4.1) and speculated if this may be due to an asset rotation, under duress or otherwise, out of bonds and into stocks, to prevent the collapse of the global ponzi (because when the BRICs tell the IMF to boost its bailout capacity you know it is global). We also proposed a far simpler theory: “the dreaded D-day in which foreign official and private investors finally start offloading their $2.7 trillion in Treasurys with impunity (although not with the element of surprise - China has made it abundantly clear it will sell its Treasury holdings, the only question is when), has finally arrived.” In hindsight the Occam’s Razor should have been applied. Little did we know 5 short days ago just how violent the reaction by China would be (both post and pre-facto) to the Senate decision to propose a law for all out trade warfare with China. Now we know - in the week ended October 12, a further $17.7 billion was “removed” from the Fed’s custodial Treasury account, meaning that someone, somewhere is very displeased with US paper, and, far more importantly, what it represents, and wants to make their displeasure heard loud and clear. (Source)

Undoubtedly, the Chinese and other countries have recently discovered that Italy and Greece, with smaller debt to income ratios than the United States, are less riskier and carry a higher rate of return. This is because, unlike the US, the Rothschild/Rockefeller bond rating agencies have trashed their country’s debt ratings, forcing them to pay a much higher interest rate than U.S. Treasuries. Hey, if you take the risk, you might as well earn the reward!